[Avodah] Kana'ut

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jul 09, 2009 at 04:47:13AM +0000, yirmeyahu at juno.com wrote:
: I don't know if there is any particular level one must be on...

Beautiful thought from the Sanz-Klausenberger deleted. BTW, is that the
same generation as the rebbe quoted in this signature? (No "coincidence"
of the randomizer, I manually selected it from my collection.)

R' Matis Blum wrote one of my bar mitzvah derashos, and in it he
addressed this quesion. It was this week's parashah, Pinechas but
enough decades ago that I only remember the broad strokes.

RMBlum contrasted Pinechas's qana'us with that of Shim'on veLevi. Note
that Yaaqov doesn't condemn them for their destruvtion of Shechem
beshe'as maaseh. His objection in Ber' 34:30 is pragmatic, it will
turn their neighbors into enemies. Rather, his condemnation isn't recorded
until YAAH's deathbed, and there it's linked to another act (Ber' 49:6,
second half):
    Ki be'apam haregu ish,
    uvirtzonam iqru shor

Chazal take "iqru shor" as a reference to the concept Moshe Rabbeinu
later describes as the "bekhor shor" nature of Yoseif.

The way the derashah went, Yaaqov held his assessment of the attack on
Shecham until he learned of their role in mechiras Yoseif. Until then,
it qas possible it was qana'aus, and valid. However, once he saw the
pattern, YAAH identified the attack as being be'apam, an angry outburst,
as self-interest based as when birtzonam they sold Yoseif. Had they been
entirely lesheim Shamayim, Yaaqov's only objection would have remained
"lehav'isheini beyoshevei ha'aretz".

Which brings us to Pinechas, who HQBH describes as acting "beqan'o ES
QIN'ASI" (24:11). Purely lesheim shamayim, with no personal negi'os.
Then and only then in qana'us mutar. Qana'im poge'im bo is only when
the person is acting on HQBH's qin'ah, not "birtzonam".


I want to add an observation that this closely parallels Abba Shaul's
notion (backed by Rashi and R' Tam et al to become Ashkenazi norm) for
choosing chalitzah over yibum. Unless the person is truly acting lehaqim
sheim achiv is yibum preferred. When there is more likelihood of personal
negi'os than altruistically giving up one's legacy to share it with his
late brother, chalitzah becomes the norm.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When you come to a place of darkness,
micha at aishdas.org        you don't chase out the darkness with a broom.
http://www.aishdas.org   You light a candle.
Fax: (270) 514-1507        - R' Yekusiel Halberstam of Klausenberg zt"l